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2018 Bookwalker Light Novel Top 50 Ranking
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Someone already made a post on the light novel reddit, but I thought it'd be good to have one here too: https://global.bookwalker.jp/ex/feature/2018-ranking/light-novel.html. Important to note but easy to forget that only series that have digital releases can be on the list, so series like Monogatari, Oregairu, etc. won't be on the list.
Some observations:
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22 out of 50 on the list are JNC titles-almost half, not bad.
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The 3 JNC titles to make the top 10: Isekai Maou, Elf Bride, and Realist Hero; it goes to show how anime can really give series a boost.
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7 out of the top 10 are isekai; the genre that seems here to stay.
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Great to see JK Haru at #25; higher than even Smartphone, imagine that.
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Congrats to @EmilyTiger: both Overlord and Tanya placed in the top 5!
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In a bit of sad news, Toradora didn't make the list. I know the anime is old, but I thought it had enough fandom to at least place on the list. Other favorites didn't place either: Baccano, Durarara, and WorldEnd.
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Surprisingly, Sword Art Online didn't place on the list, despite a new anime season this year. Actually, no Reki Kawahara series placed. That's just weird. What parallel universe did I just enter?
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What I liked most was that in the overall rankings, the first manga series came in at #20. Pretty sure that last year there was a lot more manga up at the top. Light Novels are starting to take over :D
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Yeah, too bad about Toradora. I feel like that's potentially a case where the anime covered too much material (at least that's the case for me). There's no surprises left to be discovered in the story really, just more detail.
That and fantasy seems to dominate a lot of the tops (though Ryou's Work shows an exclusive on the site that is real world based can still do well).
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Good points. To be fair though, fantasy is 99% of what we have over here, and of that 1% Oregairu and A Sister's All You Need are print only.
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Another thing to take note of is which series had promotions on Bookwalker. Like, Mommy Isekai ranked, and she had a major promotional event recently (exclusive image and other stuff), so that likely pushed sales. Elder Sister Like one also made the list at 11 on the Manga, so that artist is raking in the acclaim. x)
On the manga side, I'm sad Machi-Maho didn't rank at all, but glad Satan's Secretary did.
My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness is obviously a behemoth (is the Solo-Exchange Diary sequel on there? I haven't read that, but I want too; shame again if that didn't rank).
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There's another forgotten factor, digital-only and digital-&-hardcover series have higher chance to rank than a series with huge portion of its sales is paperbacks.
Like with hardcover, some people who may not that into physical copies or not into the series itself enough to pay the few extra dollars may prefer the digital.
Like how I'm ignoring Bookwalker exclusive titles cuz they are both low on my priority list and only available digitally. (While if they get printed, I may move them up my priority list)
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@timmaaah Yeah it's great, but manga are way less buy in digital than LN, most people prefer physical manga even if when they don't have a problem with ebook and would buy digital LN.
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Well, hope the fact that these JNC titles made it to the list imply that their sales meets the requirements for print.
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Really nice to see Elf Bride in the top 10! (That bonus bookshelf skin probably helps.) That's one title I'd be glad to double-dip on for a print version.
Also nice to see Outbreak Company break the top 50. It seems to be nowhere near as popular as other isekai from what I see of Amazon rankings, and even here it places below most other isekai (except for stuff that started mid-year), but I'm glad it has its readers. Though I wonder exactly how much of actual sales the ranks correspond to...
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Yea for all the JNC on top. Would love to see the full list. (Roukujouma needs more love)
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It's a little sad to see Grimgar only at rank 20, but it's great to see The faraway paladin in the top even if it's at the 41th rank, i didn't think the serie was selling that well especialy since the last Vol is quite "old", i hope that we will get a new vol in 2019.
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The two titles that surprised me were My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World and Bluesteel Blasphemer. Why? Because both of those titles are fully translated and have been finished for quite some time.
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@paul-nebeling I bought all of My Big Sister 2 months ago. I didn't really have an interest in them previously until i saw a review for it. There are also always new people that start reading LN that then go back and purchase older books as well.
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@timmaaah True, and I’m sure there are people that wait until a series is fully translated before buying it as well.
